The Luminous Web: Essays on Science and Religion [Paperback]

Barbara Brown Taylor (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 25, 2000

In these essays on the dialogue between science and Christian faith, Barbara Brown Taylor describes her journey as a preacher learning what the insights of quantum physics, the new biology, and chaos theory can teach a person of faith. She seeks to discover why scientists sound like poets and why physicists use the language of imagination, ambiguity, and mystery also found in scripture.

In explaining why the church should care about the new insights of science, Taylor suggests ways we might close the gap between spirit and matter, between the sacred and the secular. We live in the midst of a “web of creation” where nothing is without consequence and where all things coexist, even in such a way that each of us changes the world, whether we know it or not. In this luminous web faith and science join on a single path, seeking to learn the same truths about life in the universe. “For a moment,” Taylor writes, “we see through a glass darkly. We live in the illusion that we are all separate ‘I ams.’ When the fog finally clears, we shall know there is only One.”

Editorial Reviews

Review

The book is profound in its implications and a must-read for anyone seeking to reconcile the faith they cling to with the science they encounter. (The Jamestown Cross )

In explaining why the church should care about new discoveries and insights into the physical world that modern science has to offer, Taylor suggests ways that Christians might close the gap between spirit and matter, between the secular and the sacred. The Luminous Web is profoundly rewarding reading. (The Midwest Book Review )

Barbara Brown Taylor, an Episcopal priest whom Newsweek named as one of the country’s leading preachers, says that . . . science and religion aren’t irreconciliable. Scientists, she says, speak about mystery and enigma; they often draw on the awe-filled language of the Psalms. And religious folk care—or ought to, anyway—about new scientific findings. . . . Taylor’s fans won’t be disappointed. She offers her usual down-to-earth honesty and eloquent wordsmithing even when her subject is quarks. (Beliefnet.Com )

In these four short, readable essays, Taylor seeks to relate some of the insights she has gained as a Christian from the discoveries of modern science. She rejects the view that science and religion are unconnected; instead, both scientists and believers are engaged with the mystery and the wonder of the universe we inhabit. (Christian Library Journal )

About the Author

Barbara Brown Taylor is an Episcopal priest. She holds the Harry R. Butman Chair in Religion and Philosophy at Piedmont College in northeastern Georgia and serves as adjunct professor of Christian spirituality at Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur. Recognized as one of the twelve most effective preachers in the English language by Baylor University in 1995, Taylor has published numerous collections of her sermons and theological reflections, including Mixed Blessings, The Preaching Life, Speaking of Sin, Bread of Angels, Home By Another Way, and Gospel Medicine.
Information about Barbara Brown Taylor’s speaking engagements can be found on her website: http://www.barbarabrowntaylor.com/events.htm

Product Details

• Paperback: 109 pages
• Publisher: Cowley Publications (January 25, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 156101169X
• ISBN-13: 978-1561011698
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.4 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #71,193 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #22 in Books > Christian Books & Bibles > Protestantism > Anglican
  • #33 in Books > Christian Books & Bibles > Protestantism > Episcopalian
  • #92 in Books > Religion & Spirituality > Religious Studies > Science & Religion

More About the Author

Barbara Brown Taylor's first trade book, Leaving Church, was met with widespread critical acclaim by popular media, including the New York Times, USA Today, Publishers Weekly and NPR's Fresh Air. Her subsequent book, An Altar in the World, is now reaching an even wider audience. An Episcopal priest since 1984, Taylor served urban and rural parishes before leaving parish ministry to become a teacher in 1998. While she still preaches and teaches at churches and universities across the country, she writes more and more for the "spiritual but not religious" crowd
among whom she counts many of her own college students as well as a growing number of clergy colleagues. An editor-at-large for The Christian Century and a contributing editor for Sojourners, Taylor lives on a working farm in rural Habersham County, Georgia, with her husband Ed.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

75 of 77 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Profoundly rewarding reading., April 6, 2000

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Luminous Web: Essays on Science and Religion (Paperback)

In The Luminous Web, Barbara Taylor describes her own journey as an Episcopal priest (holding the Harry R. Butman Chair in Religion and Philosophy at Piedmont College in Demorest, Georgia) trying to learn what the insights of quantum physics, the new biology, and chaos theory can teach the Christian believer. In explaining why the church should care about the new discovers and insights into the physical world that modern science has to offer, Taylor suggest ways that Christians might close the gap between spirit and matter, between the secular and the sacred. The Luminous Web is profoundly rewarding reading.

65 of 68 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Illuminating the luminous, March 17, 2000

By 

ridge runner "camel heaven" (north carolina) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Luminous Web: Essays on Science and Religion (Paperback)

For those who love to read Mrs. Taylor's books or meditations in Christian Century will be in for a surprise. This is a collection of essays (4) that provide an excellent, easy to follow blend of scientific theory with theology. Taylor simplifies difficult scientific theories for the average person. For those of us trained as scientist with a strong faith based on personal encounters with the "awe" (Taylor's description of God), it was comforting. Her verbal dexterity expresses for me the many ideas and thoughts that I have pondered. I kept wanting to say "yes! that's what I would have said, if I had not been so limited by language deficit." Another must read book of her's is When God is Silent.

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars From Science to Religion and Back..., January 27, 2003

By 

Fred W Hood "barbara377" (Fayetteville, GA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Luminous Web: Essays on Science and Religion (Paperback)

After hearing Prof Taylor's sermons and lectures, I needed to wade thru her Essays on Science and Religion. Especially true, when I read three widely divergent reviews ... It seemed that any review title using the Metaphor of "Like a Black Hole," was a bit too outlandish for anything our knowledgeable Prof. Taylor could conjure up to print!

In my first encounters with references to Albert Einstein, then Robert John Russell and James McCord before noting Sir John Templeton on the same page... she then uses humorist Will Rogers' quote, "We're all ignorant, just on different subjects." She introduces Richard Feynman, one of our century's charismatic physicists, plus one of my generation who is familar to any native of Oak Ridge, Tennessee! She then proceeds to move thru the shortest chapter "The Evolution of Praise" heavy with the writers of Science.

My favorite, most heavily under-lined Chapter is, "The Physics of Communion." After her statements from Albert Einstein, Galileo, Copernicus and Newton, she touches upon Niels Bohr, George Johnson, Fred Burnham, John Polkinghorne, even Alan Watts, Bennett Sims and Paul Tillich. How's that for a multi-colored team of biologists, mathematicians, physicists, philosophers, theologians and scientists? When Professor Taylor does her homework there is no such metaphor as that Black Hole!

For me it is her 'Way-Out-of-the-Box' book worth 5 golden stars!